For the whole of May, I decided to go without my iPhone. Effectively, I went without my iPod, camera, email, calender, Angry Birds, Google Maps and Facebook.It was interesting to say the least. Here's my takeout;Over the course of the month, only once did I wish I had responded to an email faster. Everything else could wait until I got home or got to work.Only a few apps were truly missed; Tram Tracker and Shazam being up there. Everything else is really good at eating up your time and making you very unproductive (mostly games).Instead of listening to music and podcasts on the tram each day, I read three books over the course of the month. Unfortunately this meant I could also hear the amount of rubbish people talk about in public.I stopped checking my phone every five minutes. However, having been involved in a 'news scandal' during the month, it would have been nice to be connected to watch it play out.I could drop my burner on the ground and it didn't even matter. That was kind of nice.And last but not least, I only had to charge my burner three times during the course of the month, and didn't once worry about running out of battery.Good fun, I'm going to try and read one book a month on the tram and it's fair to say I've become less dependent on my iPhone. If you're interested in taking part, I have a free phone you can use, all it will cost you is a beer....

The gents over at Native Digital ditched their iPhones. And I thought I'd do the same, so for the month of May I'll be iPhoneless, instead using this Samsung "burner" I picked up for $20.
For 31 days I'll be without reliance on a permanent connection, satisfying my digital communication and technology needs through only a desktop. It could be a long month.
I'll post the results here, but in the mean time you can follow my progress on Twitter through the #iphoneless hashtag. Although I'm not too sure how tweeting will go without my phone.
...

I was sitting in a tutorial today keying an assessment date into my iPhone calendar. The tutor walked up and told me I shouldn't be text messaging in class and to focus on the task. I explained to him that I was doing nothing different from the student next to me writing the date into her paper diary.He smiled and asked what question I was up to.Yet another example of the University demonstrating just how far behind they are.The fact I was actually on Facebook because the tutorial was terribly boring is irrelevant....

I always assumed my Melway (directory of Melbourne's streets that sits under every car seat in Victoria) would be replaced by a GPS system. Turns out it was my iPhone.I've now had my iPhone for three months and I can't believe how much it has changed my daily behaviour.It's changed my life and made me a better person.Maybe I should look at getting a Mac....

After waiting and waiting and waiting I finally lost my phone the other night giving me a good enough excuse to cancel my current contract. I'm now the proud owner of a black 16gb iPhone.
One negative. I'm not sure if others feel this way but the best part of purchasing a new gadget, especially an Apple product, is unwrapping it and taking it out of the box. Unfortunately the Optus girl cut the plastic, opened the box, got her dirty fingerprints on it and inserted the SIM card right in front of me. Damn.
Apple don't only have incredible product design, but packaging design too. So much so, that it almost becomes part of the story of your purchase.
Anyway, what applications can you recommend?...

Dear Joseph Jaffe,
If you can challenge Barack Obama to reply to a blog post of yours I don't think its unreasonable for me to do the same thing to you.
On recent podcasts, you've been asking what have we, the listeners, have done for you lately. You asked us to recommend your podcast to friends, family and co workers assuming we had done nothing for you already.
Well the fact is we don't owe you anything. Just like a consumer owes nothing to a brand. Even if you provide a weekly podcast for free, you can't expect your customers to do anything for you. In fact, shouldn't you be greatful you have our loyalty?
This is not to say I haven't done anything for you. You appear on my blogroll, I've linked to you before and even recommended your podcast and blog to others. If you were to ignore that, aren't I at least partly responsible for both your Apple iPhone and Dell Notebook which you received through sponsorship?
So Joseph, I challenge you to reply to this blog post and tell me why I owe you anything. In a time where consumers have never been so powerful, we could go one step further and ask, in the words of Eddie Murphy; What have you done for me lately?
Kind regards,
Zac Martin...